Sean Walther's Blog

Jailbreaking: Own Your iPhone

In 2010, the US Copyright Office said that jailbreaking smartphone isn’t illegal according to the DMCA.

That statement will expire in 2012.

Jailbreaking isn’t illegal, and it shouldn’t be.

If the exemptions expire, it could be illegal to jailbreak your software (and you won’t be allowed to jailbreak or unlock your iPhone).

What can you do?

You can help the EFF get the exemptions renewed, and extended to include tablets and gaming consoles.

In order to get the renewals, the EFF needs to know how you depend on the ability to jailbreak devices.  How you use it to write software, to develop apps.

First prepare a statement that says (in notepad or something similar):

• Who you are (developer, researcher, security professional, user, etc)
• Which exemptions you support (would directly support your role) such as the mobile (phones/tablets), game consoles (not sure if this includes Apple TV like devices) or both.
• Which device you need to jailbreak
• Why you need to jailbreak that device
• What would happen if you couldn’t jailbreak the device

Visit and fill out the official form. Make sure the uploaded comment includes your name, the type of works, and all other information on the comments form.

Tags: eff, iPhone, jailbreak, jailbreaking